How does your nurse manager stack up?

Ruby Vee, BSN · Oct 24, 2006

is this normal in other hospitals? i feel that this is a little degrading in a professonal enviroment. memos are good in order to keep abreast of new policies and reminders but i also feel these should be printed and placed in everyones mail boxes instead of plastered on the walls.
how does your nm deal with issues?

ours prints them off the computer and tapes them to the bathroom walls -- two copies in each employee bathroom. one on the wall behind the toilet for those who stand to pee, one on the wall opposite the toilet for those who sit to pee.

ArmyMSN · Oct 25, 2006

Each manager has their way of doing things. I try to have a meeting at least once a month, and send out e-mails for urgent thing (try to limit though). Its sometimes hard to get the information to everyone - unless you use e-mail.

There are a lot of staffing issues (turnover, call-in, new hiring orientation) , training requirements (JCAHO), policy and procedures, dealing with administration and physicians- that managers have to deal with and get information out to the staff -sometimes the information trail seems overwhelming and endless.

In one place (without good computer access), I used a commo book that I placed in a common area.

I'd try to be as supportive to your NM as possible - as she should be for you. Maybe someone could volunteer to set up a decent sized bulletin board where those important notes/post-its can be arranged more professionally.

anne74 · Oct 25, 2006

Most hospitals I've worked in have the same thing - notes/flyers everywhere, especially in the bathroom. However, nursing is not like other professions where you sit in front of a computer, have conference calls, read emails all day, everyone works the same, set hours, etc.

You can put memos in mailboxes, but people (like me) often don't check their mailboxes for days or just toss things out. Not everyone checks their emails daily, or has time to look in a communication book. Then you have people who only work weekends, maybe only part-time; people who float to other floors. And having a staff meeting is hard because maybe you're not scheduled the day of the meeting.

So, yes, it's annoying to have random notes pasted everywhere, but it's also not easy to have one solid means of communication when there's such a revolving door of employees who are very busy with patients and don't have time to sit down and read a memo. So you kill two birds with one stone and put things where people can read them while eating or peeing. Isn't that sad? But it's the reality of nursing.

miko014 · Oct 25, 2006

That doesn't sound so bad...we have notes all over the backs of our breakroom doors, and a few in the employee bathrooms, though awhile back they said "no more notes in the bathroom". Now it's not important stuff, just notices about inservices that are being held etc.

If you think your conference rooms are bad, you should see my manager's office! I interviewed with her 5 years ago and it was in a state of chaos so bad that I couldn't even get my feet under the desk because there were notebooks all over the floor. It's getting a little bit better now becasue we have a UC/AA who tries really hard to keep it organized. It's an uphill battle. She has a chart back filled with old schedules - I know it's probably a good idea to hang onto some of those, but they go all the way back to the early '90s. The UC cleaned it out the other day and kept showing me stuff she was finding...notes to "call your husband"...the OLD husband, she's been divorced and remarried since then lol, things that came off the printer wrong, a package of some kind of tape that she had filled out a refund for and never sent back - in 1995! It's a little ridiculous, but she is mostly a good manager. She doesn't handle discipline and/or confrontation the way I would like (as in, she will just come up and say something to you in front of everybody and you have to say, "wait a minute, let's go talk somewhere else", and she doesn't say a lot of things to people who need to hear them), but I think she is a good manager. I have worked on floors where I never saw the manager EVER, and I see mine every day. She is out there helping the staff when she isn't at meetings.

carolCCRN · Oct 25, 2006

I've got to "ditto" the necessary evil of the note graveyard. There is so much new info that comes out daily that has to be implemented YESTERDAY!!!! that it's hard to get the word out one-on-one. And, no, not everyone checks their mailboxes ever. And, yes, sometimes the staff does act like children. Recently we had to take an RN off the schedule until she had her CPR card renewed-- despite expiration notices posted for all staff months ahead of time, and personal reminders. It's hard to be a Nurse Manager (I'm not one and never want to go there) and if she's good to you in other ways, try to cut her some slack.

Quickbeam, BSN, RN · Oct 25, 2006

I no longer have a manager who is a nurse....I'm a government agency community health nurse and my manager is a production person who gives me all the room I need to work. However, the best nurse manager I ever had was one who actually came in on nights to see how we were doing. I can't tell you how much that meant to morale.

banditrn · Oct 25, 2006

I'm not going to speak about my current DON, but one of the best I ever had.

She had the ability to recognize each person's unique talent, and to put that to use to form a very good team.

For instance, I'm a people person, so if she got a particularly difficult family or patient, she'd assign them to me - I could usually manage to keep everyone satisfied without being a pushover.

Another nurse was super organized, so she usually worked on the schedules.

And so forth.

This lady never asked us to do something that she wouldn't do, and in a crisis, she'd be in there working along side. Her skills were fantastic, but she didn't insist that everything had to be done 'her way'.

She never critisized anyone 'in a crowd'. She was like a bear if she thought any of the doc's were trying to abuse one of us - and most of them were a little in fear of her! :)

Sue Damonas, BSN · Oct 25, 2006

I had the same manager for many years and she's one of the reasons I left after working at that hospital for 25 years. She had a lot of notes hanging everywhere that were mostly negative and never praised us or told us we were doing a great job. She would make people go to long meetings and dangerously short staff the floor. :madface: She was very much into appearances and her "numbers", had her favorites and would tell them one thing and the rest of us something else. We worked very hard(some registry staff refused to work on our floor because it was so awful) yet she acted like we were all lazy. I could go on and on but you get the idea. She chased a lot of good nurses away and it makes me wonder why she isn't being investigated.:angryfire

mamason · Oct 26, 2006

I had the same manager for many years and she's one of the reasons I left after working at that hospital for 25 years. She had a lot of notes hanging everywhere that were mostly negative and never praised us or told us we were doing a great job. She would make people go to long meetings and dangerously short staff the floor. She was very much into appearances and her "numbers", had her favorites and would tell them one thing and the rest of us something else. We worked very hard(some registry staff refused to work on our floor because it was so awful) yet she acted like we were all lazy. I could go on and on but you get the idea. She chased a lot of good nurses away and it makes me wonder why she isn't being investigated.:angryfire

Hummmm....Sounds like we had the same manager.

sister--* · Oct 26, 2006

I'm impressed! You have a break room. We have a public cafeteria.

In our report room...size of a small closet...there are notices and notes everywhere! Even plastered to the top of our report table. Two of the four walls right now are pasted plumb-full with new handwritten med reconciliation forms and pathways. Admit from___do this, admit from___do that, dismissed to___use this paperwork, dismissed to____use this other paperwork. Then double/triple copy it in different colors. This color goes here, that color goes there, and if____ you must..... You get the idea.

And positive, good job, congratulatory notes....what are they?

Tweety, BSN, RN · Oct 26, 2006

That's not normal. That's micromanagement.

My manager rarely gives me kudos, but that's probably because we've know each other so long. I have no complaints. Her communication style might need a little work, but she's mellowed over the years.